how to drive more traffic to your blog
DESCRIPTION
Presentation explaining some little changes you can make that will increase traffic to your blog. Includes easy SEO techniques, social media tips, blog enhancement ideas, and explains how to write content that appeals to your audience.TRANSCRIPT
How to get more traffic to your blog
Overview - How to get more traffic to your blog
• Understanding your visitors
• Enhancing your blog
• Using Social Media
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Summary
• Useful Links
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Understanding Your Visitors
Understanding Your Visitors – Google Analytics 1
Sources – balance of organic ,
direct traffic, referral
Pages/Visit - How many
pages viewed
each visit
Bounce rate -
How many people
visit and leave
Understanding Your Visitors – Google Analytics 2
Bounce rate – look to
keep this as low as possibleTop
Content – Consider
why certain
pages are popular
Understanding Your Visitors – Google Analytics 3
Navigation Summary– Visitor
path analysis
Enhancing Your Blog
Enhancing Your Blog - Quality Content
• Quality Content
Focus on quality over quantity compelling content captures readers
• Publishing Content
The more frequently you post, the more traffic you get because the search engines are indexing your content more frequently.
• Don’t Forget Images
Images are a great source of traffic. Google images and equivalent are good traffic drivers. Can measure this in GA. Use to identify types of searches driving image views
• Pay attention to blog post titles
You can increase your visitor rate by 73% by the use of a compelling headline. In studies a good headline performed 259% better than the worst headline.
Enhancing Your Blog – Sharing Content
• Set up an RSS feed
This enables users to view your blog via RSS
• Not all blog readers use RSS
Offer the option to subscribe by email, helping to drive traffic to your blog
• Add social media share buttons
http://www.addthis.com/
Has a range of buttons that work with blogger, wordpress, tumblr, and others, as well as providing an ‘email a friend’ option
• Use a Blog roll
List of sites you rate, like etc. Also good for SEO. Can measure fellow blog rolls via referral list on GA.
Enhancing Your Blog – Commenting
• Ask your visitors to leave a comment before they leave
• Include questions in your posts
• Always reply to comments
• Reward comments
Thank you costs nothing
• Comment on blogs in your industry
Helps increase awareness of your blog add to the conversation often option to include the URL to your blog (SEO links)
"site: inurl:blog + "post a comment" + health beauty“ Google
•
Social Media
Social Media – Syndication of Content
• Set up a twitter account
Integrate twitter feed into blog also add via twitter comments to
facebook and linkedin #fb #in at end of tweet. (requires
plugin)
• Set up a facebook account
Engage users with blog and additional content
• Include find us on facebook plugin
Only when good volume of facebook fans
• Set up a business page on Google+ for you blog
(include links to blog)
Social Media – Syndication of content
• Set up a tumblr account
Ideal opportunity to share images and enhance your proposition. Massive growth potential particularly in fashion
• Set up a flickr account
for all images used on your blog and more, be aware only for non commercial use
• Set up a LinkedIn profile
add a link to your blog from your profile (max 3)
Social Media – Increasing blog visibility
• Ask for bookmarks
Don’t be afraid to ask for bookmarks if you have a
created a great blog post
• Create social bookmarking accounts
Use sites like such as Delicious, reddit, digg, and
stumbleupon and submit each post
http://www.socialmarker.com/ up to 50
• Distribute your video content
Don’t just add to Youtube or vimeo. Use
Tubemogel (free) to publish to up to 20 video
platforms including YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv,
and more. (Measure using GA)
Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation – 10 Top Tips
Tip 1: Keywords
Optimise each post for a keyword. Use the Google keyword tool to help
https://adwords.google.co.uk/KeywordPlanner
Ensure your keyword is in the post title, and again in the first 50 or so words of your post. You might want to repeat it every 100 words or so in your post (but don’t over-do it)
Search Engine Optimisation – Top 10 Tips
Tip 2: Image file names
Image tend to have names given to them by the device they are taken with. Typically these are number heavy. i.e. IMG_334874
As a result the best way to optimise these is to include the key phrase in the name of the image. As an example “Gucci Red Leather Hand Bag”
Search Engine Optimisation – Top 10 Tips
Tip 3: Alt Tags
As search engines cant see images include an alt tag describing the image (make sure you include your keyword in this.
When you save most images you also have the option to include a title and a description.
When you add an image to a post in wordpress as an example you can usually define alt-text for the image in the ‘add image’ menu.
In Blogger, you go to the ‘edit html’ version of your post and you will see something like alt =”” – just add your alt text between the quotation marks and save as usual.
Search Engine Optimisation – Top 10 Tips
Tip 4: Meta Title and Meta Descriptions
•The meta description provides an overview of the page but more importantly it’s a great opportunity to use copy that convinces users to click through.
•Try to ensure the keyword you have chosen appear in your meta descriptions.
•Make sure each meta description is different as duplication isn’t liked by Google.
Meta Title
Meta Description
Search Engine Optimisation – Top 10 Tips
Tip 5: URLs
•Don’t forget to ensure that your blog post URLs (sometimes called permalinks) are search optimised. Sometimes blogs will simply number new blog posts – so you’ll see sallysblog.com/p=304. That’s a missed opportunity to tell search engines what the post is about.
•The quickest and simplest way to do this is to set your blog options so that automatically new posts are given a URL like sallysblog.com/month/title. In Typepad and WordPress you can also individually edit specific URLs so that they incorporate keywords in a set order, for example.
www.yourblog.co.uk/top-10-skin-care-products
Search Engine Optimisation – Top 10 Tips
Top tip 6 - Increase your internal links
Reference previous articles and products with a link to these i.e. product name this helps search engines identify key site pages (try to link to one common page for each)
Top Tip 7 - Submit your blog to directories
This will give some traffic but also a links to your blog
Technorati
Alltop.com
Top Tip 8 - Write guest posts
Kill two birds with one stone gain linkage to your site (SEO) and create awareness with a new audience.
http://myblogguest.com/
"beauty inurl:guest-post"
Search Engine Optimisation – Top 10 Tips
Top Tip 9 - Set up Webmaster Tools Accounts
This helps the search engines and also provides useful info on positions in search engines and any site issues.
http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster
Top Tip 10 - Create an .XML site map?
Upload to website i.e. www.blogname.co.uk/sitemap.xml
Submit Site Map to webmaster tools account
Top Tip 11 - Be Generous in Linking Out
Including links in content to other blogs. Linking out to valuable resources on the internet adds weight and trust to your blog posts.
Miscellaneous
Add a link in your email signature
If you use web-based email like Gmail, add WiseStamp to your email signature so you can include links to your blog. Add your blog’s RSS feed so your recent posts are always featured in your emails. WiseStamp works with web-based email services including Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail and AOL.
Nominate Yourself and Other Blogs for Blog Awards
There are a number of blog awards given out throughout the year. Nominating yourself and other blogs and bloggers can draw attention to your blog and drive traffic to it. Measure via google analytics
Summary
• Understand your visitors
• Content is king
• Engage in the blogging community
• Learn a little SEO
• Review and optimise
Useful Links
Free online survey tool
http://www.surveymonkey.com
Free email software
http://www.mailchimp.com
Improving website conversion headline data research
http://www.marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/site-headlines.html
Free Video distribution tool
http://www.tubemogul.com/solutions/oneload/overview
20 essential blog directories to submit your blog
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/20-essential-blog-directories-to-submit-your-blog-to/5998/
Top social bookmarking sites November 2011
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-bookmarking-websites
Top blog award sites
http://www.google.co.uk/search?aq=f&gcx=w&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=blog+awards
Useful Links
Headline forumla’s that work
http://socialmediaworkbook.com/wp-content/uploads/102-headline-formulas.pdf
Code for email subscription forms feedburner
http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/2010/02/edit-feedburner-email-subscription-form.html
http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/step-by-step-guide-to-setup-feedburner-for-wordpress/
Sexy bookmarks plugin wordpress
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sexybookmarks/screenshots/
Step by step online marketing
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-noob-guide-to-online-marketing-with-giant-infographic-11928
Digg and Stumbleupon overview
http://www.slideshare.net/danielle.brigida/using-social-media-strategically-to-increase-web-traffic
Useful online and social media marketing guides
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/marketing-guides/
http://www.bloglovin.com/en
Useful Links
http://www.bloggerlinkup.com/
Get guest posts opportunities
http://www.copyblogger.com/guest-posts/
Advice on guest posting
http://www.toprankblog.com/rss-blog-directories/
List of top blog directories